Alain Morin

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About

Alain Morin is a leading cognitive psychologist whose work bridges the study of inner speech, self-awareness, and artificial consciousness. His research focuses on how self-talk—the silent, internal dialogue we engage in—shapes self-reflection, emotional regulation, and executive function. Morin’s most cited paper, “Developing Self-Awareness in Robots via Inner Speech” (2020, 69 citations), proposes that endowing artificial systems with a form of inner speech could enable them to achieve a rudimentary sense of self, drawing parallels between human metacognition and machine cognition. This provocative work has influenced both robotics and philosophy of mind. In his more recent review, “Self-talk: research challenges and opportunities” (2023, 15 citations), Morin critically examines methodological hurdles in the field, including how to measure self-talk frequency, the role of personal pronouns, and the use of experiential sampling in natural contexts. His contributions have helped legitimize self-talk as a serious object of empirical study, moving it from anecdotal curiosity to a measurable cognitive process. Morin’s work continues to inspire researchers in psychology, neuroscience, and AI, offering a unique lens on how language shapes the conscious self.